Listen to Maurice Walsh on The History Show on RTE Radio explaining how the trenchcoat, developed for British officers during the First World War, became a fashion accessory for the IRA during Ireland’s War of Independence:

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Praise for Bitter Freedom

Bitter Freedom is a wonderfully involving work: vividly written, with a storyteller’s eye for human detail and a scholar’s sense of broader and deeper movements over time. Anyone interested in Irish history will find the book riveting.

Joseph O’Connor, author of Star of the Sea

Sets Ireland’s post-1916 history in its global and human context, to brilliant effect.

Neil Hegarty, The Irish Times “Books of the Year 2015”

What sets apart Maurice Walsh's hugely readable new book is that he places the political upheaval…within a broader European context, so we view the Irish revolution not as a stand-alone event, but as part of a wave of change that was sweeping across Europe

Dermot Bolger, Sunday Business Post

Vivid and incisive

Roy Foster, The Spectator

A vivid narrative with a reporter’s ear and eye for a telling anecdote or revealing vignette

David Reynolds, The New Statesman

Probably the best overview of the revolutionary era…superbly crafted and a joy to read.